Another day, another superfruit is declared. This time, blackcurrants are being touted as the number one ‘superfruit’, with properties that include helping to fight cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.
The berry is reportedly far more nutritious than more exotic fruits such as goji berries and blueberries, favoured by celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, according to new research by Dr Derek Stewart, of the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI).
Stewart and his team uncovered that the blackcurrant contains greater levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than 20 other fruits tested.
Crucially, the amount of antioxidants means that eating blackcurrants can help prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, eye strain, MRSA and diabetes, among other ailments.
The study looked at 20 fruits and measured the levels of antioxidants and the nutritional value. In the majority of cases the blackcurrant outperformed its rivals.
"The motivation for the research came from the huge publicity surrounding superfruits, coupled with the lack of consumer knowledge and understanding of what a superfruit is or what a fruit must contain, ” Stewart reported. “We wanted to find out which fruit came out on top. And blackcurrants can claim to be the number one superfruit."
As well as blackcurrants, researchers analysed apples, apricots, bananas, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, grapefruit, grapes, lemons, mangoes, melons, oranges, passion fruit, peaches, pears, pomegranate, raspberries and strawberries.
"From a quick overview it is clear those with a deep purple or red colour perform particularly well, the darker the fruit the higher the antioxidant content.” Dr Stewart added. “Blackcurrants are very dark purple in colour and in line with these indicators, comes out top in the majority of the categories."
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